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The First Chechen War, also well-known as the war in Chechnya, was a clash between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic Ichkeria, fought from December 1994 until August 1996. After the first campaign of 1994-1995, ending in the devastating Battle of Grozny, Russian federal forces attempted to control the mountainous region of Chechnya to recover, but were down by Chechen rebels warfare and searches on the plains despite the overwhelming manpower Russia, weapons and air support. The resulting extensive demoralization of federal troops and the almost universal opposition of the Russian population in the conflict, Boris Yeltsin led the government to declare a truce in 1996 and signing a peace treaty a year later. The official figure for Russia's military death toll is 5500, while most estimates of between 3,500 and 7,500, or even as high as 14,000. Although no exact figures on the number of Chechen militants slain, different evaluations of the number at around 3,000 to more than 15,000 deaths. Various figures estimate civilian casualties at between 30,000 and 100,000 deaths and possibly more than 200,000 injured, while more than 500,000 people were moved by the conflict, which left towns and villages on the republic in ruins.

Russia helicopter set down by Chechen fighters near the capital Grozny in 1994In 1944, on the orders of the NKVD chief Lavrenty Beria, more than 1 million Chechens, the Ingush, and a number of other North Caucasian peoples were deported to Siberia and Central Asia, officially as punishment for alleged collaboration with the invading German troops, Chechen-Ingush Republic was abolished. Eventually, Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev awarded Vainakh (Chechen and Ingush) people permission to return to their homeland and restored their republic in 1957.

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation Convention

Russia became an independent nation after the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991. While Russia was widely accepted as the successor of the USSR, but lost much of its military and economic power. Although ethnic Russians has more than 80% of the population of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, major ethnic and religious differences a threat of political disintegration in some regions. In the Soviet period, some of Russia around 100 nationalities granted ethnic enclaves that different formal federal rights had attached. Relations of these entities with the federal government and demands for independence erupted into a major political issue in early 1990. Boris Yeltsin these requirements in its 1990 election campaign included by claiming that their resolution was a high priority.

There was an urgent need for a law to clearly define the powers of any federal issue. Such a law was adopted on March 31, 1992, when Yeltsin and Ruslan Khasbulatov, the former chairman of the Russian Supreme Soviet, and an ethnic Chechen itself, the Federation bilateral treaty signed by 86 of the 88 federal subjects. In almost all cases, demands for greater autonomy or independence were satisfied by discounts from the regional autonomy and tax privileges. The treaty outlined three basic types of federal issues and the powers that were reserved for local and federal government. The only federal issues that do not sign the Treaty were Chechnya and Tatarstan. Finally in the spring of 1994, signed President Yeltsin a particular political line with Mintimer Shaeymiev, the president of Tatarstan, the provision of many of its demands for more autonomy for the republic in Russia, so Chechnya was the only federal issue that have not signed the treaty. Neither Yeltsin nor the Chechen government tried any serious negotiations and the situation would deteriorate into a full-scale conflict.

Propagation of war

Chechnya's Chief Mufti Akhmad Kadyrov was a statement that the chri Jihad (struggle) against Russia raised the specter that jihadis from other regions and even outside Russia would enter the war. By one estimate, to 5,000 Chechens not served as foreign volunteers, motivated by religious or nationalist reasons.

On several occasions, Ingush president Ruslan Aushev protested incursions by Russian soldiers and even threatened the Russian Ministry of Defence sue for the damage inflicted by reference to the way the federal forces who earlier assisted in the removal of the Ingush population of North Ossetia.

Undisciplined Russian soldiers were also reported to be committing murders, rapes and looting in Ingushetia. Much larger and more deadly hostilities took place in the republic of Dagestan. In particular, a border village Pervomayskoye was completely destroyed by Russian forces in January 1996 in response to major hostage in Chechnya Kizlyar in Dagestan (more than 2,000 hostages), which severely criticized by the hitherto loyal Republic and escalating domestic unrest. The Don Cossacks of southern Russia, initially sympathetic to the Chechen case, turned hostile because of their Russian-like language and culture and a stronger affinity to Moscow or Grozny (their long history of conflicts with indigenous peoples, such as the Chechens should also be considered), and the Kuban Cossacks started to organize themselves against the Chechens, including the crew paramilitary roadblocks against the infiltration of their territory.

Meanwhile, the war in Chechnya emergence of new forms of separatist activities in the Russian Federation. Resistance to the conscription of men from ethnic minorities to fight in Chechnya was widespread among other republics, many of which laws and decrees on the subject. For example, the Government of Chuvashia passed a decree providing legal protection to soldiers of the republic who refused to participate in the war in Chechnya and the restrictions imposed on the use of the federal army in ethnic or regional conflicts in Russia. Some regional and local legislative bodies called for a ban on the use of conscripts in the suppression of internal conflicts, while others demanded a total ban on the use of armed forces in such situations. Russian government officials feared that a move to war short of victory would end a cascade of secession attempts to create other ethnic minorities.

The Moscow Peace Treaty

The Khasav-Yurt Accord paved the way for the signing of two new agreements between Russia and Chechnya. In mid November 1996, Yeltsin and Maskhadov signed an agreement on reparations and economic relations with Chechens who were "affected" by the 1994-96 war. In February 1997, Russia has also agreed to an amnesty for Chechen separatists and Russian troops, both illegal acts committed in connection with the war in Chechnya between December 1994 and September 1996.

Street of the ruined capital Grozny after war

Six months after the Khasav-Yurt Accord, on May 12, 1997, elected Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov traveled to Moscow, where he and Yeltsin a formal treaty was signed "on peace and the principles of relations between the Russian-Chechen" predicted that Maskhadov would break the "no basis to bad feelings between Moscow and Grozny to create." Maskhadov optimism proved misplaced. Little over two years later, some of Maskhadov's former comrades-in-arms, led by radical field commanders Shamil Basayev and Ibn al-Khattab, launched an incursion into Dagestan in the summer of 1999 - and soon Russia invaded Chechnya again marking the beginning of the Second Chechen War.

Second Chechen War

The Second Chechen War, in a later phase known as the War in the North Caucasus, launched by the Russian Federation since August 26, 1999, in response to the invasion of Dagestan by Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade (IIPB).

Russian artillery shells target militant positions near the village of Duba-Yurt in January 2000On October 1 Russian troops entered Chechnya. The campaign ended the de facto independence of Ichkeria and restored federal control over the Russian territory. Although considered by many as an internal conflict within the Russian Federation, the war attracted a large number of foreign fighters.

During the first campaign, the Russian military and pro-Russian Chechen paramilitary forces faced Chechen separatists in an open battle, and seized the Chechen capital Grozny after a siege that lasted the winter of late 1999 until February 2000. Russia established direct rule of Chechnya in May 2000 and after full-scale offensive, Chechen militants across the North Caucasus region continued to inflict heavy Russian casualties and the Russian political control over Chechnya challenge for several years. Some Chechen separatists also carried out terrorist attacks against civilians in Russia. These terrorist attacks, as well as widespread human rights abuses by Russian and separatist forces, drew international condemnation.

Since 2009 Russia has severely disabled the Chechen separatist movement and the large-scale fighting stopped. Russian army and Interior Ministry troops no longer occupy the streets. But sporadic violence persists throughout the North Caucasus, occasional bombings and ambushes targeting federal troops and forces of the regional governments in the region still occur.

On April 16, 2009, the counter-terrorist operation in Chechnya was officially terminated. Since most of the army was withdrawn, the burden of dealing with ongoing low-level insurgency was mainly on the shoulders of the local police. Three months later, the exiled leader of the separatist government, Akhmed Zakayev, a halt to the armed opposition to the Chechen police start on August 1, and said he hoped "to start this day will never shoot each other Chechens" .

The exact death toll from this conflict is unknown. Unofficial estimates range from 25,000 to 50,000 dead or missing, mostly civilians in Chechnya. Russian casualties were greater than 5200 (official Russian figures victim) and about 11,000 according to the Committee of mothers of soldiers.

Terrorist incidents and border clashes

On November 16, 1996, in Kaspiysk (Dagestan), a bomb destroyed a building housing Russian border guards, 68 people are deceased. The cause of the explosion was never determined, but many in Russia blamed on Chechen separatists. Three people are deceased on April 23, 1997, when a bomb exploded at the Russian station of Armavir (Krasnodar Krai), and two on May 28, 1997, when a bomb exploded at the Russian station in Pyatigorsk (Stavropol Krai).

On 22.12.1997, the forces and Chechen militants Dagestaanse based Arab warlord Ibn al-Khattab invaded the base of the 136th Motor Rifle Brigade of the Russian army in Buynaksk, Dagestan, inflicting heavy losses on the men and equipment of the unit. On 04.07.1999 four Russian officers were patrolling near the border slain Stavropol. Russia in late May announced that the Russian-Chechen border in an attempt to close the terrorist and criminal activities, border guards were ordered to shoot suspects. On June 18, 1999, seven soldiers were slain when the Russian border guard posts were attacked in Dagestan. On July 29, 1999, the Russian Interior Ministry troops destroyed a Chechen border and captured a 800 meters section of the strategic road.

Bombings in Russia

Before the aftermath of the invasion Dagestaanse had established a series of bombings took place in Russia (in Moscow and Volgodonsk) and in the city Dagestaanse Buynaksk. On September 4, 1999, 62 people were killed in a building housing members of families of Russian soldiers. In the next two weeks, three other bombs condominiums and a shopping center, nearly 300 people were slain. Khattab initially claimed responsibility for the bombings, but later denied responsibility. This was followed by an anonymous caller who said he belongs to a group called the Liberation Army of Dagestan. There were no other discussions or actions of the Liberation Army of Dagestan.

Other researchers have criticized the theory, stating that a conspiracy theory. The researchers pointed out that proponents of the theory have little or no evidence provided to support the theory. Gordon Bennett also points out that the decision to send troops to Chechnya was taken by Boris Yeltsin - Vladimir Putin is not - with the full support of all power structures after the invasion of Dagestan.

Air war

Late August and September 1999, Russia made a massive air attacks on Chechnya, with the stated aim of eradicating militants attacked Dagestan last month. On 08.26.1999 Russia recognized bombing in Chechnya. The Russian air strikes were reported to have forced at least 100,000 Chechens to flee their homes for safety, the neighboring Ingushetia region was reported to have appealed to the United Nations to deal with the support of tens of thousands of refugees. On 10.02.1999, Russian Ministry of Emergencies admitted that 78,000 people have fled the air strikes in Chechnya, most of them were on their way to Ingushetia, where they were at a rate of 5000-6000 per day arrive.

Land War

The Chechen conflict entered a new phase on October 1, 1999, when the new Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin the authority of Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov and his parliament illegitimate states. At this time Vladimir Putin announced that Russian troops would be a land invasion, but would only progress if the Terek River, which cuts off the northern third of Chechnya from the rest of the republic. Putin's stated intention was to take control of the northern plains and Chechnya to take a cordon sanitaire against further aggression Chechen determine, but remembered only later that the cordon was "useless and technically impossible", apparently because of the rugged landscape of Chechnya. Listen

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